


Together in Hell

by 9haharharley1



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Character Death, Dehydration, Guns, Implied Slash, M/M, Starvation, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:08:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7066453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9haharharley1/pseuds/9haharharley1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zim and Dib need each other. They both know it, but neither believes. It's only when it's too late that they finally come to terms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together in Hell

Hunger had set in long ago, his stomach growling and sending near crippling waves of pain to his brain in a seemingly endless loop. How long had it been? How long had he been trapped in the labyrinth of wires and metal walls? Dib had explored the entirety of the underground base, had searched every room that was not locked down, and still he hadn’t found a way out. He’d eaten every scrap of food he could get his hands on, even going so far as to lick crumbs off the floor after he started getting desperate. He’d even gone so far as to drink anything that was wet.

 

And _fuck_ was he desperate.

 

His clothes hung off him like rags, his shirt draped much too big over his to small shoulders and he needed to actually hold his pants up by hand when he stood. Dib had long since abandoned his boots when they started to get to heavy to walk in, deteriorating muscles straining with every step. His trench coat had also been abandoned. Now he used it as a blanket to keep out the constant chill in a corner of the room where it all began. His ribs were far too visible. His hipbones were sharp and glaringly obvious. And as Dib curled up under his coat in his corner of the room where it all started, he guessed that if he had access to a mirror, he would see just how sunken his cheeks were, face gaunt and eyes hollow behind his now too big glasses.

 

The cause of his plight, as was the cause of all his troubles since he was a kid, lay unmoving against an inactive computer console. Dark blue blood had coagulated on the still form where it had leaked from open wounds. Both eyes were shut, and the face lax and peaceful, as though the figure lay only sleeping.

 

Dib knew better.

 

He had chased Zim into the deepest bowels of the Irken’s base, a rage like he had never known fueling his steps. There was true fear in the alien’s red eyes as he glanced back at the rampaging human. Dib chased him halfway across the city and into his base, only this time, Dib was sure. He was absolutely certain that this would be the last time Zim would ever hurt anyone ever again. He was done. He was done with the lies, the schemes, the chase. He was done with aliens, with space, and most of all, he was done with _Zim._ With a frustrated roar, Dib busted down the front door to Zim’s base and followed him down to the lower levels using one of the elevators he remembered using as a child.

 

It opened to a long hallway and Dib ran out, hearing the _thump_ of Zim’s boots not too far ahead of him. “Zim!” he shouted. “This is fucking it, Zim! Come out!” Hate like no other fueled his every word.

 

There was a crash in a room at the end of the hall, and Dib ran to it. Skidding to a halt in the threshold, he found Zim tapping away at one of his many computers. Dib moved slowly, menacingly into the room.

 

“This is it, Zim,” he spat. Zim’s head swerved around to him, eyes wide, and antennae drawn back. “End of the line. Just you and me. None of your little tricks will save you this time.”

 

Zim pressed one more button on the console before turning to face the human completely. The same human who had thwarted his every plan to conquer Earth. The same human who had been his enemy since the day he arrived. The same human he had seen grow from an awkward child into the capable young man that now stood before him.

 

“I suppose not,” Zim said calmly. “It seems our little game is finally over.”

 

“Game?!” the human screeched. “What game?! Is that what this has been to you the whole time? ‘Hey, let’s fuck with the only human who knows what I really am!’ Bullshit! This has never been a game. And even if it was, I’m done playing.”

 

“Why?” Zim snarled back, that familiar anger back in his dark red eyes, a cornered beast. “All because I killed one human? One in the many who never gave a shit about you?!”

 

“She was my sister!” Dib screamed back. He advanced quickly, pressing the alien back against the computer console. “You could have killed anyone, _anyone_ , and I honestly wouldn’t have cared. I wouldn’t have even batted an eye. But Gaz? You… It just had to be her, didn’t it?” Dib’s voice grew quiet.

 

“The Gaz-monster never cared about you!” Zim exclaimed. He took Dib’s cheeks in his clawed hands. “She beat you! She called you some of the worst names I’ve ever heard. She treated you far worse than you deserve and never did anything for you in her life, yet still you defend her! Why?!”

 

“She was family,” Dib whispered harshly. “She was still there for me when no one else was.” He gently grabbed Zim’s hands, so at odds with his mood, and lowered them. Dib glared down at the Irken. “You should have gone for my father. I wouldn’t be quite so heartbroken.”

 

“And what about me?” Zim growled back. “Has Zim not been there for you all this time? Me, who has pushed you to your full potential?!”

 

“You made my life hell!” Dib shoved the alien away from him. “Since the day you got here, my life got worse! The teasing, the laughing- it all got worse.”

 

“Did Zim not help you through all that?” Zim shook his head, almost sadly. “If I remember right, you _chose_ to fight me at every little provocation. And even when you vowed to give it all up, you came crawling back! You need me. You’ve needed me this whole time.” A slow, nasty, evil little grin split the Irken’s mouth, zipper teeth glinting in the low light. “Even if you kill me, you’ll still need me.”

 

“Not if I can help it.” Slowly, Dib reached behind him, giving Zim time to properly react, pulling a gun from the waistband of his pants. Surprisingly, Zim’s expression didn’t change. Dib pointed it at Zim. “You know what this is, right?”

 

Zim nodded. “.38 magnum. You bought it on your eighteenth birthday.”

 

Dib quickly wiped the surprise off his face. “And how would you know that?”

 

“I know everything about you, Dib. Just like I know you’ll sincerely regret pulling that trigger.” Zim’s antennae relaxed against his head, as though accepting his impending death.

 

“I sincerely doubt I will,” Dib said quietly. He leveled the gun right between Zim’s narrowed eyes. “You shouldn’t have killed my sister.”

 

“Call us even, then.” Zim reached back and pressed one last button on the console. “I believe your human saying in these situations is, ‘I’ll see you in hell.’”

 

Dib glared. “Goodbye, Zim.”

 

He pulled the trigger.

 

Zim’s splattered blue blood still dirtied the console. Dib hadn’t been able to bring himself closer, yet he could barely stand to leave the room- figuratively and literally. Despite it all, Zim was his only companion in the bowels of the Irken base. GIR was dismantled long ago and the only person who would bother to look for him was dead.

 

When Dib had finally shot his long-time enemy pointblank in the face, his only thought in that moment was, ‘It’s over. It’s finally over.’ It took him a minute or so to finally look up at the screen above the computer terminal. What he saw made his amber eyes widened behind his glasses and panic took over.

 

‘Manual Override Initiated,’ it said. ‘Total Lockdown Activated.’

 

Immediately, Dib spun on his heel and booked it to the elevator. Barley five feet from it, heavy silver slabs of metal slammed down, blocking his exit. “No, no, no, no, no!” he shouted, voice high with terror. He had run to every elevator he knew of in the maze of tunnels, but all of them had been effectively sealed off. He was trapped with no way out.

 

Zim was right.

 

They were even.

 

And now, with his muscles atrophied and exhaustion his default state of being, Dib thought over everything Zim had said that fateful day.  Dib did need Zim. He’d been unable to hack the computer to let him out. He needed Zim to do that. If he was completely honest, he’d needed Zim this whole time.

 

The Irken had shown up just when Dib was starting to doubt his own beliefs. No one believed him, but suddenly there was this little green kid sitting in his class that gave him purpose. When the other kids teased him, he took it out on Zim. When his dad denied him, he’d go to Zim’s to prove to himself that he was right. When Gaz beat him, Zim always happened to be there with some half-assed plan for world domination to take Dib’s mind off the pain, physical and emotional. And when they entered high school, they always partnered on projects and, despite their constant arguing, they always passed with flying colors. There had even been days where they would end their battles and sit together under a tree looking up at the stars and Dib would ask questions. Zim would answer.

 

Zim had been right about Gaz. In the long run, he didn’t really care that she was dead.

 

Now though, Zim and Dib were finally tied.

 

Zim was dead by Dib’s hand. And as Dib’s body started to shut down, shivering under his trench coat, he knew he was ultimately dying by Zim’s.

 

Maybe they would see each other in hell.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve noticed that in quite a few of my IZ fics, Zim is already harboring icky tender feelings for Dib, and Dib is just trying to figure things out about his own feelings.


End file.
